The focus and texture of this wine is really something. It’s totally transparent with blackberries, blueberries, earth, stone and mushrooms. Flowers too. Full-bodied with firm tannins that give super form and length to this. Freshness. Almost all merlot with a tiny dash of cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. Perhaps the best ever? Certainly at the same level as the 2019. About 14,000 bottles made.

Wow. Awesome crème de cassis and black raspberry fruits as well as classic Saint-Emilion chalky minerality and floral notes emerge from the 2020 Château Croix De Labrie, and it's medium to full-bodied, with stunning purity, ripe, building tannins, and a great finish. It's slightly more vibrant and fresher than the 2018, yet is certainly in the same ballpark, if not better, qualitatively. This gem will be well worth seeking out.

The 2020 Croix de Labrie is superb. Rich, pliant and wonderfully expressive, it dazzles right out of the gate. Inky red fruit, rose petal, cinnamon, cedar, new leather and mint all build in the glass. Silky and plush, with terrific balance, the 2020 is shaping up to be a real jewel of a wine.

vinous.com

Deep purple-black in color, the 2020 Croix de Labrie wafts out of the glass with flamboyant notions of sandalwood, red roses, ground cloves and cedar chest, giving way to a core of stewed black plums, Morello cherries and boysenberries, plus a waft of bouquet garni. The medium to full-bodied palate has a rock-solid backbone of firm, ripe, rounded tannins and plenty of freshness, nicely framing the muscular black fruits, finishing long and spicy. Axelle and Pierre Courdurié's 50-year-old, 3.79-hectare vineyard consists of a mix of clay and limestone soils, a portion of which are in Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes and another portion of which are located at the foot of the Pavie slope in Saint-Émilion.

The 2020 Croix de Labrie has an intense bouquet of blueberry, cassis and light violet aromas, showing a little more delineation compared to the 2018 that I recently re-tasted. The palate is medium-bodied with a satin-like texture, very plush but not exotic thanks to the counterbalancing acidity. This is a little spicier than previous vintages and it shows commendable harmony on the finish. One of the best vintages I have tasted in recent years.